Despite a temporary lull in fighting, United Nations officials warned the UN Security Council on Wednesday that Yemen remains gripped by escalating regional tensions, that are derailing prospects for a lasting peace, a deepening economic collapse and a worsening humanitarian crisis that continues to devastate civilians, especially children. Half of Yemen's children - some 2.3 million - are malnourished, with 600,000 of them suffering from severe acute malnutrition.
“While the frontlines may currently appear relatively stable, what Yemen has now is not peace,” said Hans Grundberg, UN Special Envoy for Yemen, briefing the Security Council.
He began his briefing by welcoming the May 6 announcement of a cessation of hostilities between the United States and Ansar Allah, also known as Houthi rebels.
“This step represents an important and necessary de-escalation in the Red Sea and in Yemen following the resumption, on 15th of March, of US airstrikes against targets in Ansar Allah-controlled areas,” Grundberg said.
“As I have said many times before, it has become increasingly clear that a level of de-escalation in the Red Sea and in the wider region is needed to bring Yemen back to the path toward peace.”
According to local authorities and other reports, nearly 1,000 civilians have been killed or injured in Yemen since the start of the year, a large number of them since the resumption of US airstrikes on March 15. US and Israeli military strikes have not only killed and injured civilians but also damaged civilian infrastructure, including health facilities and power plants, as well as the Sanaa airport and Hudaydah port.
Recent events - including Ansar Allah's May 4 attack on Israel's Ben Gurion Airport and Israel's subsequent strikes on Hudaydah port, Sanaa airport, and other sites in Ansar Allah-controlled territory - underscore how deeply Yemen remains caught up in escalating regional tensions.
Meanwhile, the country's currency continues to deteriorate and prolonged power outages - up to 15 hours a day in Aden and weeks-long blackouts in Lahj and Abyan - cripple daily life in government-held areas.
In areas under the control of Ansar Allah, civil servants remain unpaid, liquidity is drying up, and repression of civil society voices is deepening.
Grundberg condemned the arbitrary and prolonged detention of UN personnel by Ansar Allah and called for their immediate and unconditional release.
“Not only is their detention in violation of international law, but it has also caused a significant chilling effect throughout the international community, which only has one outcome: undermining support to Yemen, which will sadly impact the Yemenis most in need,” he said.
Grundberg welcomed the recent releases of staff from the Dutch embassy and an international organization, noting that this shows "what is possible, but these releases are woefully insufficient."
“Ansar Allah must change course,” he urged, calling on all parties to “be courageous and choose dialogue”. He also reaffirmed the UN's unwavering commitment to supporting a negotiated solution to the conflict.
“Let’s be clear: Yemen is not out of the woods,” Tom Fletcher, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, told the Council in his briefing on Wednesday.
Highlighting the plight of the country's children, half of whom are malnourished, he noted that malnutrition undermines immunity, making pneumonia and diarrhea the leading causes of child mortality in Yemen, while cholera and measles cases are on the rise due to low vaccination rates.
“Children also have to contend with fields littered with landmines and schools emptied of teachers,” he said.
“And of course, children are not alone in being disproportionately impacted. As I have briefed previously, malnutrition also now affects 1.4 million pregnant and breastfeeding women, placing mothers and newborns at grave risk.”
In 2025, more than 19.5 million people are in need of humanitarian aid in the country. Among them, 9.6 million women and girls are in dire need of life-saving assistance, facing hunger, violence, and a collapsing healthcare system.
“Yemen’s 2025 humanitarian response plan is barely 9 percent funded – less than half of what we received at the same time last year,” Fletcher stressed, noting that these shortfalls have very real consequences, including the closure of 400 health facilities, among them 64 hospitals, affecting nearly 7 million people.
20 therapeutic feeding centers and 2,200 therapeutic feeding programs have already been forced to close - depriving more than 350,000 malnourished children and mothers in Houthi rebel-held areas of life-saving nutritional treatment.
“We expect pipeline gaps as early as June or July – right when malnutrition numbers will peak,” he said.
“The cuts are, as I’ve described, biting hard. People are dying,” the UN relief chief stressed.
At the same time, the UN is significantly reducing operational costs so that more money can be spent on saving lives.
“Here, as elsewhere, we are determined to save as many lives as we can with the money we have,” Fletcher said.
In the first few months of 2025, humanitarian organizations around the world have experienced an abrupt and unprecedented drop in funding, triggered by extreme cuts implemented by the United States. Yemen has been deeply impacted by this devastating development.
As a result of these brutal cuts, aid organizations have been forced to drastically reduce life-saving programs. Without new and additional funding from other donors, humanitarian needs in many parts of the country will worsen as millions of Yemenis lose the assistance, they need to stay alive.
Recently, the humanitarian community in Yemen identified the most critical life-saving activities that require US$1.42 billion to sustain minimum humanitarian operations for 8.8 million people.
“Yes, the people of Yemen need aid. But they also need peace,” Fletcher said.
He also asked the Council to act to ensure respect for international humanitarian law, to provide increased and flexible funding to sustain critical aid operations, and to support efforts to achieve a lasting peace.
Further information
Full text: Briefing by the UN Special Envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, to the UN Security Council, UN Office of the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Yemen, delivered May 14, 2025
https://osesgy.unmissions.org/briefing-special-envoy-hans-grundberg-un-security-council-6
Full text: Briefing to the Security Council on the humanitarian situation in Yemen by Tom Fletcher, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, OCHA, delivered May 14, 2025
https://www.unocha.org/news/acting-un-relief-chief-warns-security-council-yemen-crisis-worsening-scale-and-severity